Art Cairo 2026 at GEM: Cairo’s January art nights, distilled into one elegant guide

At the edge of Giza—where the city’s rhythm softens and the horizon opens—the Grand Egyptian Museum holds its ground with a kind of quiet certainty. It’s a place built for scale, for memory, for the long view.

And in January 2026, that monumental setting becomes the backdrop once again for Art Cairo 2026, returning to GEM for its seventh edition.

This isn’t the kind of event that asks you to rush. It arrives in the late afternoon, gives you the evening, and leaves you with the feeling that the city has a second cultural heartbeat—one that starts after 3 PM.

A return written into the calendar

Art Cairo’s official schedule places the fair on four public days: Friday 23 January to Monday 26 January 2026.
Before that, there’s a VIP preview on Thursday 22 January 2026, listed as invitation-only.

What makes those dates feel intentional is the timing: this fair is designed for the hours when Cairo starts to breathe slower.

The hours that shape the mood

Public visiting hours are listed as 3:00 PM to 10:00 PM across the public days.
The VIP preview is listed from 2:00 PM to 10:00 PM (by invitation).

That late-afternoon-to-night window changes everything. It turns a visit into an evening. It gives the art space to land. It leaves room for pauses—the kind that matter when you’re standing in front of work that doesn’t reveal itself in seconds.

The setting: where contemporary art meets a monumental landmark

The venue is the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Giza, with the fair listing the address as Alexandria Desert Rd, Kafr Nassar, Al Haram, Giza Governorate.

There’s a particular energy to GEM’s location—near the Giza Plateau, where the past is never far from view. Major reporting has described the museum as being located near the Pyramids, a placement that naturally amplifies the feeling of arrival.

Art Cairo itself leans into that contrast: modern and contemporary work presented “against the inspiring backdrop” of GEM—an experience it describes as a blend of historical and contemporary context.

Tickets, kept simple

The ticket price listed on Art Cairo’s visitor information page is 300 EGP.

That’s the clean line your readers want—and the clean line you can publish without overexplaining.

Seventh edition, fourth at GEM

Art Cairo’s own positioning frames 2026 as a continuation, not a reinvention. The fair describes this as its seventh edition, and its official site presents GEM as the host setting for the 2026 dates.

Even without adding extra commentary, that framing says enough: this is a recurring chapter on Cairo’s cultural calendar, returning to a venue that has become part of its recent identity.

The theme that anchors the edition

Art Cairo 2026 unfolds under a published theme: “Arab. Art. Here.”

It’s short. It’s present tense. It doesn’t ask permission.

On Art Cairo’s official communications, that theme is presented as a guiding idea for the edition—something meant to frame the fair’s voice and focus.

What Art Cairo says it is

On its official website, Art Cairo frames itself as part of Egypt’s wider art ecosystem—describing a role in fostering collaboration among galleries, artists, and cultural institutions, and driving initiatives that contribute to the region’s cultural landscape.

It’s an important detail for anyone writing about the fair with accuracy: Art Cairo is not presented merely as an exhibition space, but as a platform with a broader cultural function—at least in the way it describes itself.

The experience beyond the walls

Art fairs are often reduced to the visual: booths, walls, spotlights, the quick scan.

But Art Cairo’s official site layout points to a wider structure around the exhibition halls—sections that imply conversation and programming alongside the art. On the website, you’ll find references to elements such as Talks, Hiwar, and the Podcast “Qa’adt Fann.”

That matters for how you plan your visit. Even if you come purely to look, those tracks signal that the fair is built to host dialogue—not only display.

A sense of scale, in the organisers’ own words

On the Art Cairo homepage for 2026, the fair describes the experience with sweeping language, including the line that visitors can discover “over 3000” works/pieces (as presented on the site).

The best way to read that line is not as a statistic you have to verify in the moment—but as a signal of intention: breadth, density, and range. A fair that wants you to explore, not just attend.

How to plan your evening like someone who actually wants to enjoy it

If you’re going to write one useful paragraph for your audience, make it this:

Choose your day—23 to 26 January for public attendance, 22 January if you’re invited for the VIP preview. Aim to arrive with time, because the published hours are built for a slow visit—3 PM to 10 PM on public days. And if you plan to do more inside GEM beyond the fair itself, treat your night as layered: a destination, not a stop.

Art Cairo at GEM isn’t just something you “go to.” It’s something you enter—late afternoon turning into night, contemporary work set inside one of Egypt’s most significant new cultural landmarks, and a city that, for a few evenings, feels curated.

Art Cairo 2026 runs 23–26 January 2026 at the Grand Egyptian Museum, with a VIP preview on 22 January, public hours 3:00 PM–10:00 PM, and a listed ticket price of 300 EGP.